Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of “Birdman” and “Grand Budapest’s” Wes Anderson were triple nominees, as director, writer and producer of the pics. (Inarritu shared writing credit with three collaborators; both shared producing credits with others).

The Weinstein Co.’s “The Imitation Game” was close behind with eight mentions, including a best actor nod for Benedict Cumberbatch and directing for Morten Tyldum, making his English-language bow. Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” (Warner Bros.) and Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” (IFC FIlms) had six nominations each. Linklater is another triple nominees, as director, writer and a producer.

Eight movies will compete for best picture this year, with Academy rules allowing five to 10 films, in a complicated system of tallying. The eight are “American Sniper,” “Birdman,” “Boyhood,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game,” “Selma” (Paramount), “The Theory of Everything” (Focus Features) and “Whiplash.” For the past three years, there were nine best-pic contenders.

Eastwood and “Selma” director Ava DuVernay were snubbed in the directing category. “Selma” actor David Oyelowo was also left out of the best actor races. “Selma” scored two noms, for best pic, and song.

The five actor contenders are Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne. This is Cooper’s third consecutive nomination, though the others are first-timers.

Though the nominations were clearly dominated, as usual, by English-language films, Cotillard’s bid in Belgian pic “Two Days, One Night” plus a cinematography nod for the Polish “Ida” showed that foreign language fare can still have a shot outside the foreign language film category.

“Nightcrawler,” which recently raised its awards profile with nominations in six guild votings, nabbed an original screenplay bid for Dan Gilroy.

One of the biggest surprises was the omission of “The Lego Movie” in the animated feature category. It was well-liked, and many considered it the front-runner to win.

J.J. Abrams, Alfonso Cuaron, Chris Pine and Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the nominees in a two-part live event at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. This was the first time the Academy and ABC televised all the categories on the air, after previously limiting it to about 10 of the 24 races.

Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the 2015 Oscars will be broadcast live Feb. 22 on ABC.

“Everything Is Awesome” from “The Lego Movie”
Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson
“Glory” from “Selma”
Music and Lyric by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn
“Grateful” from “Beyond the Lights”
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from “Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me”
Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond
“Lost Stars” from “Begin Again”
Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois

“American Sniper” Written by Jason Hall
“The Imitation Game” Written by Graham Moore
“Inherent Vice” Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson
“The Theory of Everything” Screenplay by Anthony McCarten
“Whiplash” Written by Damien Chazelle

Im not surprised Inherent Vice got almost completely snubbed… the subtleties of that film flew over most peoples heads… Ive heard it described as bombastic… and in overall style perhaps it was.. but there was a lot going on in the subtext of the film and the individual acting performances within it that were ignored,,, of course thats just my $.02
cheers charliewired

I don’t know why I even expected Inherent Vice, Nightcrawler and Snowpiercer to get nominated for Best Picture. *sighs*

Now I feel like The Imitation Game and the Theory of Everything were each reserved a spot even before they got released. Did the Academy even see those movies? They couldn’t have thought them to be as good as all of us expected! I mean the actors were really good but please! Best Picture? I don’t think so. (I mean honestly, even Edge of Tomorrow was better made than those 2)

And I don’t know what made me think that maybe this time they’d nominate the actual great films of the year in the categories that count.

They sure can surprise, right? I mean no nod for Lego Movie (Animated Feature) and Gone Girl (Score)? Harsh.

Now I’m just hoping Boyhood or Budapest wins everything. Well, most of the nominees are good. My point is they ommitted many of the great ones, yet again.

Bird man was a terrible movie but accurately reflects the Hollywood agenda. Doesn’t even hold a candle to grand Budapest, which I saw several times. I took the screenwriting program at UCLA. I can definitely see how they would come up with this trite exploratory crap. Keaton is a major talent, just obviously off track, and should either go on a long vacation or seek help from any number of qualified psychiatrists and get off the moonbat Machine.

Birdman is so bad it makes a case for an award for” the worst movie ever nominated for an Oscar”. Grand Budapest Hotel was IMO was great and very well crafted. Night Crawler IMO was outstanding with many twists and turns. Jake Gillenhaal gave an Academy Award performance.

I will not watch the Oscars this year because the movie Selma was deliberately scorned on purpose. A movie critic that was on one of the night comentators show on MSNBC he said when a movie that can be up for a Oscar and can win across the board, the people who vote for the nominations will put out a story before December 29 so any movie that can be better than others will have controversie put out on purpose. As a African,Irish,Cherokee,Scottish,Hatian,Asian American woman I am disgusted with Hollywood politics and I will not watch the Oscars ever again! I am sorry I couldn’t think of the person name who wrote the book but I am sure you can google Oscars and how they sabotage movies for personal reasons. Pray for this country and our soilders!

I am disappointed Lana Del Rey, Lorde, & Sia were not nominated for Best Original Song, Ava Duvernay and Angelina Jolie were not nominated for Best Director for Selma and Unbroken, and David Oyelowo was not nominated for Best Actor for Selma as King. With Duvernay and Jolie not being nominated, history was not made today.

It does not have a chance with the liberals out there. notice Eastwood did not get the nod either. liberals do not want to get Obama mad after how Eastwood said about him. O, and Eastwood was dead on about Obama.

American Sniper was so boring. Nothing in that movie hasn’t been said in a dozen other war films. Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Born on 4th of July come to mind. American Sniper was paint by numbers compared to those movies.